​Learned all about Letter G and the /g/ sound as in grapes and Greta. (Although we discussed that Letter G can also make the /j/ sound as in giraffe and Genevieve, we did not focus on that sound.)

Brainstormed words that begin with the /g/ sound

Used dough, chalk, and the Wet Dry Try app on iPads to practice pre-writing Letter G

To create capital G: "big curve, little line, little line"

To make a lowercase g: "start with a Magic c, up like a helicopter, bump, back down and turn"

Practiced writing capital and lowercase Gg in handwriting workbooks

Detected the /g/ sound at either the beginning or end of words such as dog, goat, frog, and girl

Illustrated and phonetically spelled words that begin with the /g/ sound in individual alphabet booklets

Played a group game of alphabet recognition called I Have.., Who Has..? It's also a fun way to strengthen attention, and impulse control!

Learned the sight words with and to and searched for them in our weekly poem, Gus Has a Goldfish​

In Math, we:

​Continued practicing the concept of one more and completed pages in math workbooks (not pictured)

Used iPads to work on IXL

In Writing, we:

​Illustrated Weekend News and wrote accompanying words

Sounded out names of people and places to complete the following sentence using this week's sight words: "I go to ____ with ____" and then illustrated a picture to accompany the writing. (not pictured)

Read our Time for Kids magazine, which was about cities this week, and followed directions to draw cities of our own

Learned the sight words he and she and hunted for them in our weekly poem, A House for a Hippo

Drew pictures and added words to complete worksheets containing the sentences, "He is _____ing. She is ____ing."

Continued working on Lexia Core 5 Reading Program on computers

Continued using Explode the Code workbooks

In Math, we:

Completed our December calendar pages by writing in dates and drawing a favorite December memory

Explored math concepts of enough and one more

Completed pages in Singapore Math workbooks to practice these concepts

Worked on iPads in the IXL program

In Writing, we:

Illustrated and wrote Weekend News

Reflected on our Winter Break! Students drew a favorite part of their vacation and wrote words to accompany their drawings.

Created new placemats for the second third of our school year :)

Copied words found in The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Used wipe-off boards to practice ALL the sight words we've learned so far!

In other news:

Here we are inside the Zeiterion Theatre waiting for the Eric Carle show to begin! Note: blurry children are the ones enjoying the bouncy seats :)

The students' stamina during Book Look has been improving very well! Look at these budding readers!

We played with a new batch of snowflake playdough.

We played a game of shapes in the theme of The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Our old meeting rug was ripping and so we got a new one which is larger and also makes a very cool noise when banged on! As they say, if you can't beat them, join them! The sound resembles a loud rainstorm and we sought guidance on the internet to perfect this beautiful noise. See for yourself the performance we tried to emulate in class! We loved it so much that we watched it many times!

Read our weekly poem, A Potato for the Teacher and hunted for words with /p/ at the beginning or end

Began learning about short a word families with -an -ap and -ad

Continued work on the Lexia Core 5 reading program and Explode the Code workbooks

In Math, we:

​Played with a Dreidel in honor of Hanukkah. This game exercised math skills and gave practice in cooperation and turn-taking.

Continued to use IXL on iPads - our class has completed a total of 500 problems so far this year!

In Writing, we:

​Illustrated and wrote Weekend News

Wrote thank you notes to Harlow's grandmother for her generous donation of beautiful carpet samples which now grace our meeting area and provide a distinct space for each student when we gather on the big rug.

In Sign Language, we:

​Watched a video and colored and cut flash cards to correspond to signs pertaining to our feelings. I hope your child has taught you some signs at home! You can see the Feelings song for yourself here!

Our week was short and sweet, or I should say short and KIND! We earned our third marshmallow and now the word H-O-T is spelled out! We're well on our way to our hot chocolate party. Ask your child how they have helped make kindness win in our classroom!

We made up for the rained out Turkey Trot by indulging on Dr. Seuss classics! We enjoyed the short movies The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, The Sneetches, and The Zax. We continued the movie party with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Inch by Inch. Popcorn dialed up the fun!

May you be surrounded by loved ones this Thanksgiving holiday and may you find time to reflect on the goodness in your life. I wish you full bellies and full hearts! Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with me.

Practiced writing letter Nn in the Handwriting Without Tears workbooks

Listened for the /n/ sound and sorted words into groups of either beginning with or ending with /n/

Began working in phonics workbooks called Explode the Code!

Identified the sight words can and in in the weekly poem

Rainbow wrote the sight words can and in

We visited the Book Fair and worked hard to write our wish lists! I'm overjoyed and so grateful for your generosity in fulfilling MY wishlist for the classroom! We devoured the wonderful additions to our library. Thank you!!!

Visiting author, Matt Tavares!Mr. Tavares spoke to us about the process he goes through as an author and illustrator. It was fascinating to learn how much goes into a book! He also gave us tips for drawing our own illustrations, and demonstrated his process by drawing Brixton as if he was a baseball pitcher at Fenway Park! He taught us how to make objects smaller in the background and larger in the foreground. Mr. Tavares then signed the finished sketch for the school to keep in the library. So cool!

In preparation for our Thankful presentation, ​students drew illustrations and added many details before getting to work on writing their words. We can't wait to see you at All-School Meeting on November 28th so that we can tell you all the things we're thankful for!

We made Turkey Trot t-shirts with our 3rd Grade Buddies! Thank you for donating shirts for this project. It's totally awesome to see the relationship growing between the Kindergartners and the Third Graders. The completed shirts will be on display on Tuesday at the school-wide event! Hope to see you at the Turkey Trot on November 20 at 1:30!

Our classroom is having a Kindness Contest! Much better than competing for WHO can BE the kindest, this is a contest of making sure that KINDNESS always wins over being UNKIND! Kindness filled our classroom at the start of the school year, but it hasn't been as noticeable lately. So the kindness contest is a fun way for us to prioritize being kind to one another!

Here's how it works:

Anytime someone feels kindness around them, they can put a cube in the Kindness Bucket.

But the same is true if someone feels that they've been treated unkindly. Then a cube goes in the Unkind Bucket.

We are not allowed to put a cube in if WE were the one being kind. It has to be noticed by someone else. Therefore, it's important to LOOK for kindness!

The buckets are just high enough so that we can't peek inside.

At the end of the day, we count up the cubes in each bucket and see which side has more. If the Kind side wins, we all win! (And if not, then we know we have to try harder the next day to both BE KIND and to SEE KIND.)

THEN...if kindness wins, we earn a marshmallow! And when we earn enough marshmallows, we'll be rewarded with a Hot Chocolate Party!! On Friday we earned our first marshmallow. We had SO much kindness in our room!

Only 11 more days of kindness winning for our marshmallows to spell: H-O-T C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E !

​

In other news, we:

​Continued playing in the class Donut Shop and shared it with Mrs. Bullard's class during Free Play Friday. The kids have done so well with turn-taking, learning about money, and keeping the shop organized. Play is a child's work!

Celebrated Brixton's birthday

Enjoyed many wonderful books thanks to the generosity of classroom donations!

Listened closely to hear the /d/ sound at the beginning or in the middle of words

Continued working in Lexia

Learned the sight words said and in by:

Searching for them in our weekly poem

Rainbow writing the words

Completed a worksheet asking students to draw items that start or end with /d/ that would be found in a cabinet, in a park, on a playground, and on a table

In Math, we:

Learned the proper formation of numbers 8 and 9 and practiced using chalkboards, dough, handwriting workbooks, and iPads

Completed pages in Math in Focus workbooks

Completed the October page of students' individual calendars and discussed/illustrated favorite October memories.

Halloween Party!​What lucky children to have been so wonderfully taken care of on Wednesday! The party was a smashing success, from the craft stations to the delicious food and everything in between. The kids were brimming with joy and I'm so grateful for your time and effort! Thank you!

In Writers Workshop, we:

Illustrated and wrote Weekend News

Reflected on our Halloween! Students drew a favorite part of their day and wrote words to accompany their drawings.

Learning Around the Room

The kids were up and moving around the classroom as they worked to complete learning activities of rhyming, counting, copy writing, capital and lowercase letter matching, and letter sounds. They looked so official with their clipboards and pencils, marching around the room in search of the next stop on their scavenger hunt!